What is an Effigy? Well, a correct liturate meaning is a representation or image of someone or something. Later, it also refers to people disliked, and if you burn it or whatever, you do in public, you do it "in effigy". The idea it`s only for disliked people is a huge mistake, but it often does take that meaning.
To bonfire Boyes, an Effigy is a representation that is stuffed full of fireworks and blown up as a set piece, normally to end the nights events.
Since the term has a few meanings, it can be tricky to find out about old effigies. Currently, the oldest known Battle Effigy was in 1870 and was of a local murderer who made the news. This was a life-size likeness, like a guy, of the person and it was carried down the street on the procession. At the end of events, it was hung on a gibbet, stuffed full of fireworks and lit to end off the night. While Todays effigies are much bigger, this is basically the same thing. Some `non-set piece` effigies were used in them days, as they were just the likeness of a person that was carried down and thrown on the fire, but an Effigy is the set piece. For a while, Effigies became `tableau`, mostly just a large board with an image on it, alone with fireworks, but that was still basically the same thing. In the 70s, they became more what we know today, as a 3D large Papier-mâché, wire and wood sculptures. The theme for these Effigies range from Local topics to world topics, films or some bonfire related topics.
 Unknown (Believed to be Guy Fawkes) - 1974 Designer - Unknown Street Collection - £213 Made in Con-junction with Cliffe Society. This appears to be the first of the much larger scale effigies clip. |
 Edward Heath & Margaret Thatcher - 1975 Designer - Unknown Street Collection - £213 By 1974, Edward Heath himself, had become seen as a liability by many Conservatives MPs. While he resolved to remain the conservative leader, even after resigning as PM in 1974, and losing the `74 election, many felt it was time for a change. Since Enoch Powell had left the party, there was no clear challenger for leadership. Keith Joseph had ruled himself out of the running after some controversial statements he issued, but his close friend and ally, Margaret Thatcher, decided to join the race for leadership, along with Hugh Fraser. In the First ballot, Thatcher received 130 votes, Health had 119 and Fraser only 16. Since it wasn`t a large enough majority to win, another ballot was needed, but after losing to second place, Health removed himself from the running. A couple of new people joined the running, and when the second race happened, favourite William Whitelaw lost with only 79 votes compared to Thatchers 146. |
 Britannia - 1976 Designer - Unknown Street Collection - £? Information to come |
 Queen Elizabeth1s Silver Jubilee - 1977 Designer - Unknown Street Collection - £370 The 6th February 1977 marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II`s accession to the throne of Great Britain and it`s lands. |
 Guy Fawke - 1978 Designer - Unknown Street Collection - £462 A Generic Guy Fawkes effigy |
 Jimmy Carter - 1979 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £501 AA lot happened to Jimmy Carter, President of the US and ex-Peanut farmer, in 1979. The Iran Hostage Crisis where 52 Americans were held hostage until 1981, with many negotiation attempts, the 1979 Energy Crisis, where oil exports were suspended from Iran & The Three Mile Island Accident, where a US Nuclear Power plant started to meltdown and Carter`s popularity started to take a dive. |